Joshua
by TheIceMaiden
Summary: A story of an infamous vampire who seeks out the Cullen's in search of their help.
1. Chapter 1

**Joshua**

_A story of an infamous vampire who seeks out the Cullen's in search of their help._

**Preface**

Driving through the streets of Forks I took a moment to survey my surroundings. The climate was perfect. Population was way too small though, if I made a home here everyone would be dead within a year. Of course the Cullen's didn't feed on humans. I couldn't get my head around_ that_.

Carlisle Cullen was well-known among vampires as he lived with the Volturi for a while, but mostly he was known for choosing to drink animal blood! Whatever possessed him to want to do that was beyond me, humans were our food, why would you reject your natural diet? I shook my head, regardless of his strange choices it was of utmost importance that I find his coven. We needed their help.

**1 The story until now**

I was born in London, November 1799 and grew up in an orphanage until I was thirteen, when I got a job at the docks and became a crew member of a sailing ship. I loved the ocean, the travelling, the camaraderie of the crew – it was freedom.

Another love of mine was women and they loved me. My looks were appealing to them; I was tall, with black hair, olive skin and pale blue eyes which seemed to have a hypnotising effect on them. From the age of sixteen there was no woman I couldn't have and nothing that I couldn't get a woman to do.

It was 1823 when my crew sailed to Brazil. After landing at the port we settled for a few days and one evening I noticed a girl staring at me.

She was the most incredible girl I had ever seen. Her skin was pure white, her long flowing hair was a pale orange and she spoke with a beautiful voice in an unusual accent. When she beckoned me to her I didn't think twice.

Her name was Lilith. She was dazzling, but intimacy with Lilith felt wrong. Her white skin was solid ice and her eyes were red! Every single instinct in my body told me to get as far away from her as possible but her beauty was bewitching and I didn't. Stupidly I returned to her night after night.

I never asked Lilith what she was but I knew she had to be more than human.

On the last night of our stay I told her I would be returning to England the following day. She was furious! Her beautiful face twisted into a terrifying expression.

"You're not leaving! You're mine, you are staying with me!" she said.

My blood ran cold as I felt my heart launch into a sprint. _What was I thinking! I should never have come here, I'm a fool, she's not human. I have to get out of here NOW!_

My voice found a confidence I didn't feel. "No Lilith, I'm returning to England".

As I turned to leave the room an icy hand flung me against the wall and the back of my head impacted with a painful thud. Before I could move she was in front of me, moving with unnatural speed. She pinned me against the wall and I cried out as I felt the bones in my shoulders crack under her vice-like grip. She sunk her teeth into my neck and quickly my fear of dying turned into a begging for death.

Searing, raging fire travelled through my veins and then I was engulfed by hell. I remember praying to God for help but no help came.

The few days of my change went by in a blur of continuous torture. In the back of my mind I knew _she_ was still with me.

I was right about her, she was an evil demon and now she was turning me into one too - I _hated_ her!

When the burning finally stopped and my heart was still I entered into a new world; my sight, my hearing, my sense of smell, my speed, my strength! I felt like the most powerful being in the world. To my delight I also found I had another skill; I could make Lilith do, think or say anything I wanted!

My initial feeling towards Lilith was to leave her but I needed a mentor to help me adjust to this new 'life' so for the next decade I stayed with Lilith for selfish convenience, allowing her to teach me how to control my new body and learn the 'rules' vampires had to live by.

When I decided to leave she had no choice about it. I'd altered her mind so often that she would have wondered whether I was ever real.

I travelled inland following the Amazon River. A feeling of loneliness descended on me and I remembered my crew mates. I imagined what they would have thought about my disappearance. I had a close friendship with most of them – they would have definitely been worried. I wondered how long they would have searched for me before finally giving up and returning to England.

_What would they think of me now? _I knew the answer to that – they'd be terrified, all humans were.

Somewhere in the rain forest I was relieved to come upon two vampires; a man and a woman. The man's name was Jorge and the woman's Ana. They invited me to join them and I gladly accepted, but with my nature still maturing I was keen to show off my impressive gift - disaster!

Jorge, fearing the zombie-like state I had placed Ana in was permanent, sprang to tear out my throat. In automatic reflex I mentally commanded Ana to attack and Jorge was torn apart! _What have I done! _The moment I released Ana she was distraught and I had to clear her mind of all memories of Jorge. I hated myself - I had turned a mate against her own mate! I vowed it would never happen again but as I travelled on the situation continued to present itself repeatedly.

Some vampires were just hostile and would want to kill you just knowing what power you possessed so I began to harden myself to survive and over the next one hundred and fifty years I moved from coven to coven travelling up through South America, along the east of North America and finally into Europe.

Any males that stood against me were destroyed and the females kept under my command. I had become a monster.

I had been living in Madrid with two female vampires for a while when I decided I'd had enough. I was tired of destroying partnerships and controlling members of my coven. I wanted to be alone. Mine was now a name that vampires snarled, not spoke - a pariah among my own kind.

I heard some wondered why the Volturi hadn't come for me. I knew exactly why! How would the three ancient vampires fare with Jane, Renata and Chelsea on _my _side! In fact thanks to Chelsea's gift so would the entire guard! Of course they could always just send males..? But then thanks to my habit for travel they never knew exactly who was in my coven or what gifts they possessed. They clearly didn't think it was worth the risk and as I had no desire to meet or belong to the Volturi I decided as long as they left me alone I would show them the same courtesy.

For over twenty years I travelled the cities of Europe in solitude and any vampires I came into contact with I simply lied and told them my name was Joe. I never gave any indication that I had a gift and never used my gift except whilst hunting.

During this time the world entered into a new millennium and I remember the night well. Gazing at the futuristic date I was never supposed to live to see I actually took to the streets to celebrate with the humans and watched their firework displays.

It wasn't so bad being with humans once you learnt to handle the burn in your throat.

At the end of this time my place of residence was a floating home on one of the rivers running through central Amsterdam and it was here that I decided I would return to England.

I travelled south to Calais, France to get the evening ferry. I knew exactly what I wanted my first sight of England to be – The White Cliffs of Dover.

As a crew member of a ship this image was always cause for loud celebration and I wanted that feeling of nostalgia again.

My homeland didn't disappoint and thanks to my improved eyes I got to see my country for its truest beauty.

When I arrived in London I was delighted to discover that (although altered in some way) there were still a lot of buildings that I recognised from my human life.

I purchased an apartment on Tower Bridge (money wasn't an issue, when you live forever Swiss and off-shore bank accounts can accrue a lot of money) and also a boat to sail on the Thames.

My feeding ground was the nightlife of London. I had used bars and nightclubs for hunting for the last forty years. It made it so easy. With a perpetual age of 23 I was the perfect age to be there, the dark lighting made it difficult to see my red eyes and no one battered an eyelid when a woman left with a stranger.

It was some two years into my life in London when yet again my life was changed forever.

It had been several days since my last meal so I visited a nightclub in Hammersmith to hunt. As I walked around the dance floor inhaling the delicious scents I noticed there were a number of male humans that seemed to be distracted by one specific female.

The human girl was quite tall (about 5ft 8in compared to my 6ft 2in), with long wavy brunette hair, brown eyes and a gloriously hourglass figure. Her face was pretty, with an enormous smile and she projected the appeal of a sunny disposition.

_I would have loved this girl when I was human _I thought. _Where did that come from? _In over a hundred and eighty years I had never looked at a human in _that_ way before!

I shook the thoughts from my head and instead focused on her as my next meal. I visualised the inevitable game that always unfolded. I would mentally command her to look at me and when she did she would hold her breath for a second as her heart would begin to pound. I would beckon her to me with my finger _like Lilith did to you _I thought bitterly. Then I would lead her home where she would stand prettily with her eyes closed and her head tilted up giving me full access to her neck – so easy.

I focused my mind back to the girl trying to ignore strange stabs of guilt that seemed to be appearing out of nowhere. I commanded the girl to look at me. Nothing. The human girl was swishing her head about still dancing. I stood dumbstruck for a moment. _Did that just happen?_

I focused again, trying to ignore the strange feeling in my stomach that had now appeared as well as the guilt stabs and tried again. Nothing. _What the hell is going on?_

I looked beside me and saw another girl a few feet away, already staring at me with her mouth hanging open and shot her a quick mental command. Instantly she stood to attention like a soldier. _I still had my gift. Why wasn't it working on THAT one?_

I shot the dancing girl another command and sighed in frustration. Nothing! The girl was now shrieking with laughter as some moron behind her had grabbed her hips making her wriggle. _Do I really have to complete with male humans?!_ This should have been way beneath me but something – pride? Made me want this girl's attention!

I abandoned all thoughts of hunting and instantly the feeling in my stomach and stabs of guilt evaporated. I walked slowly onto the dance floor and then, on her own accord, the human girl looked at me.

Her eyes moved up and down by body admiringly and I smiled in response. _I love the way she's looking at me. _It made me feel human again.

As I continued towards her she closed the gap and I braced myself for the red-hot burn in my throat – which never came. _Hmm? She's definitely human - she smells wonderful! Why doesn't she make me thirsty?_

"Hi. Do you wanna dance?" She said.

I _loved _her cockney accent it evoked a shower of human memories in me. She touched my hand then made a cute 'yelp' noise, shaking her hand in the air indicating her surprise at the temperature of my icy skin. I laughed.

We danced slowly to the music despite the fast beat, our bodies never touching but our eyes locked onto one another.

Once the song finished we walked off the dance floor and I didn't realise for a moment that I had fallen under some white lighting showing her my dark red eyes.

I expected her changing expression to become one of terror but instead she looked mesmerised. She dropped her gaze to my hand and then deliberately held it in hers taking in the texture of my marble skin. When her eyes lifted again to mine she asked me what I was and without a thought in my head I told her.

The human girl's name was Kelly. She was 22 and she was alone. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was two and she had been raised by her grandmother whom she had been living with until last year when sadly her beloved grandmother died. Since then she had been living in a shared apartment in a run-down suburb of London.

Kelly and I began seeing one another but I hated the days without her so much I asked her to come and live with me.

I couldn't believe I had a girlfriend, I hadn't had one of those since I was living and breathing! The female vampires in my coven couldn't be described as that – they had no free will. But Kelly did and she liked me! She _loved_ me! I had long believed that happiness had left me forever when my heart died, but now it was here again, with me every day.

Living with a human was much easier than I ever thought possible and I know this had everything to do with the fact that I had no desire for Kelly's blood. I had no idea why this was the case and I honestly didn't care. My diet on the other hand, was not exactly something Kelly was thrilled about but her philosophy was I wasn't human, therefore she didn't have the right to tell me how to eat.

As our love grew our relationship became physical and I had no doubts. I knew confidently that I could never bring myself to cause Kelly any harm - which leads my story to the present day.

Two weeks ago Kelly began to become sick and ravenous and tearful and moody and throwing some pretty fierce temper tantrums! I wondered whether she was just ill or if I'd somehow sent her insane but when she advised me that her period was late I dismissed it as impossible – until she showed me two positive pregnancy tests!

My initial instinct was to jump for joy as back in my human life I had always hoped to become a father one day, but then I remembered the obvious truth – she was human, I wasn't. So what exactly was she going to give born to? In echo to my thoughts Kelly felt movement within her. _Already? _ I knew that wasn't a good sign.

Over the next two weeks Kelly began to develop a noticeable bump and I spent every night searching the streets of London looking for other vampires to find if they knew of this situation ever occurring before, being very careful not to let them know who I was or that this situation was happening right now!

One night I followed the scent of a vampire under a bridge and found a scruffy British vampire I didn't recognise sitting there. When I asked him the question he rolled his eyes like this was old news and said "oh so you've heard about the Cullen child then". _Cullen child? _I played along.

"So it's true, how do you know?" I said.

"They asked me to witness for them against the Volturi. I didn't do it - I thought they'd all get killed but I later heard the Volturi did actually listen in the end" he said.

I asked the vampire for more details and it turns out a member of Carlisle Cullen's coven fell in love with a human who gave birth to his child. What's more the child and mother were fine! - The child an immortal human and the mother now a vampire!

I couldn't believe my luck! Not only had this exact situation happened before but happy endings all round! Kelly would be a vampire and together we would have a living, breathing vampire child! It felt like a blessing from God! _We have to find Carlisle Cullen!_

I raced home and told Kelly to pack herself a bag – we were going to America!


	2. Chapter 2

**2 The Cullens**

We were driving through Forks at a steady speed. Kelly's bump was ever growing and her diet had changed too. One night when I brought home food for her she found a steak and within seconds she ripped open the packaging and began sucking the excess blood from the meat. I was terrified she would get sick but she didn't and a craving for blood quickly followed. Kelly couldn't bring herself to drink from people so I had the idea of stealing blood packs from hospitals. Now Kelly's diet consisted of human blood and rare cooked steaks – definitely an iron/protein theme on the go.

I put the window down to see if I could catch the scent of a vampire – nothing yet just a disgusting wet dog smell in the air. I continued to drive to higher ground as vampires didn't usually like to live too close to humans and as I put the window down again I caught the very distinctive smell of vampires – excellent!

The dirt track road had a clearing to the right and as we turned the scent began to become stronger. Suddenly a glamorous house came into view which was originally quite old in age but had been altered to look very modern.

"Is that where they live?" said Kelly, clearly impressed.

"It's not difficult for vampires to accrue money babe" I said.

"Why don't we live in a place like that?" she said.

"What's wrong with our home! We live in an exclusive area of London, I'll bet good money that our apartment in Tower Bridge is a lot more expensive!" _Bloody women! _I thought.

"I was just saying!" she said.

I calmed down, there was no point getting into an argument over something as stupid as this. Plus she was right it was a very nice house.

I parked the car in front of the house. "Stay here" I said.

As I got out of the car there was again that wet dog smell in the air. _What is that?_ As I approached the door it opened before I got there and a male vampire with blindingly blond hair stood in the doorway looking both curious and wary at the same time. As I got closer I noticed he had yellow eyes – _ugh._

"I'm looking for Carlisle Cullen, are you him?" I said.

"Yes I am him, how can I help you" he said in a pleasant American voice.

I looked over Carlisle's shoulder and saw at least seven other vampires in his home. I decided to just bite the bullet and admit who I was.

"My name is Joshua" I said. Instantly at the sound of my name all vampires stiffened and hissing sounds began to resonate from the three male vampires behind Carlisle.

"I'm not here to cause trouble I just need Carlisle's help!" I said.

I had already heard Kelly leave the car and walk up behind me. Thanks to Kelly's complete lack of fear of vampires she popped her head round with a huge smile on her face. "Hi! I'm Kelly" she said.

Kelly walked round to the front of me and I placed an arm protectively across her. Instantly the faces of the vampires calmed and looked surprised.

"Well you didn't predict _that_ Alice!" said a big male vampire with dark hair.

A tiny female looked flustered. "Well I can't see hybrids! – _or_ who's carrying them!" she said.

Carlisle now much more relaxed smiled at us both. "Well I think you better come in" he said.

Carlisle invited us into his home and formally introduced himself and his family and it turned out that most of the members of his coven possessed powerful gifts of their own.

Carlisle's wife was Esme, a sweet looking vampire who often smiled reassuringly at both of us – I liked her instantly.

The large male vampire who first spoke earlier was Emmett and he kept a possessive arm around the shoulders of his mate Rosalie, a gorgeous blond who seemed a bit annoyed by Kelly's present condition.

Another male was Jasper, a vampire who had the ability to influence mood. Jasper was covered in battle wounds and I was eager to ask him about those. His mate was Alice, the tiny vampire who has the impressive gift for predicting the future. Alice had predicted my arrival but, it turns out due to Kelly and bump, wasn't able to see clearly what I wanted or who I was.

The other two vampires were Edward and Bella. Edward was a mind reader who had an annoying habit of answering questions you only thought, not said. Bella was a mental shield and beside Bella was a child I couldn't take my eyes off. She was about ten years old with blushing cheeks and a heartbeat! Her name was Renesmee and she in turn seemed fascinated by Kelly. She held her hand to her mother's face and before Bella could react Edward answered his daughter's thoughts.

"That's true. She's not making any of us thirsty". Edward looked at Carlisle who turned to me.

"Has this always been the case or just since her pregnancy?" he said.

"No it's always been the case" I said. I kissed Kelly on the side of her face.

"That so interesting" he said looking fascinated.

"Yeah" I shrugged disinterested. The fact that no vampire seemed enticed by Kelly's blood was a relief and I wasn't about to look for a cure.

Carlisle, we discovered was a doctor for humans and asked to examine Kelly. When she lifted up her sweater he looked surprised.

"Hmm, you don't have any bruising" he said. Kelly and I looked perplexed.

"Why would I have that!" she said. Carlisle glanced at Bella.

"Bella's stomach was black and blue from the baby's kicks. Do you feel movement?" he asked.

"Yes I feel movement all the time" she replied. Kelly looked at me anxiously.

"What are you getting at? Are you saying there's something wrong with the baby?" I said.

Carlisle held his hands up.

"No, no, all pregnancies are different, as long as you are feeling movement I'm sure everything is fine" he said.

Over the next several days we settled in to stay with the Cullen's until the baby was born. Carlisle had a spare bedroom which used to be Edward's and it conveniently had a bed in it already so Kelly could sleep whenever she needed. I discovered the disgusting wet dog smell belonged to Renesmee's 'friend' Jacob a werewolf! Jacob just seemed to sort of tolerate my presence. It was strange to me that he was determined to spent pretty much all his time hanging around vampires despite that fact, I was told, he was supposed to kill them! Apparently his connection with Renesmee overruled that.

One day about a week into our stay with the Cullens, Kelly was resting and watching TV so I wondered outside to the garden to watch Bella who was with Edward and Emmett, practicing throwing her shield off herself onto another person.

Emmett saw me watching "so you can control women?" he said to me.

"That's right" I said.

He looked at Bella "why don't you try it against Bella's shield?" he said grinning.

_Oh here we go! _I looked at Edward who was glaring at Emmett.

"No" I shook my head.

I heard Kelly waddle out-side, she'd been having trouble walking normally since her bump was now the size of Brazil. "I'd like to see your gift" she said.

Kelly was dubious I even had any power over women "it's probably just because you're really good-looking" she once said dismissively.

Emmett's eyebrows shot up "you're not going to tell me you've never used your power on Kelly!" he said.

"It doesn't work on her" I said.

Suddenly all eyes were on Kelly.

"She must be a shield like Bella!" said Emmett.

_Shield? _ It had never occurred to me that the reason my gift didn't work on her was because she possessed a kind of power of her own.

Edward shook his head "she can't be like Bella, I can read her mind. I couldn't ever do that with Bella even when she was human" he said.

"Maybe Kelly's shield isn't as strong as Bella's" suggested Emmett. He looked back at Bella.

"Come on Bella, give it a try" he said.

"Oh sure, why not" she said.

I looked at Edward who shrugged his consent, then focused on Bella. The strangest thing happened! I couldn't influence her mind in any way but I could control her body. I walked Bella over to Edward and put her arms around his neck.

"THAT WAS HORRIBLE!" she said.

I burst out laughing "that's hilarious! I've never had that happen before" I said.

"Did you really do that!" said Kelly looking amazed.

I moved Bella's limbs again like a string puppet.

"STOP THAT!" she said. I laughed harder.

"Well that's interesting" said Edward who was looking a bit disappointed that I had any influence.

"So you can control Bella's body but not Kelly's and Edward can read Kelly's mind but not Bella's" said Emmett looking baffled.

"So what does that mean? Am I a shield or not?" said Kelly.

No one knew the answer. "I guess we'll find out" I said.

That evening I decided that for the first time since our arrival in Forks that I should go hunting. When I told the Cullen's of this they looked awkward.

"You can't hunt in Forks Joshua we have a treaty with the werewolves" said Carlisle.

"That's fine, I'll drive to Olympia" I said.

Carlisle looked relieved "thank you" he said politely.

"Why don't you try drinking animals like the Cullens?" said Kelly.

_Oh no! _This was exactly what I hoped wouldn't happen. I liked the Cullens but I had no intention of becoming an animal-drinking vegetarian!

"That's not my diet babe" I said hoping she'd drop the subject.

"But it could be. The Cullens have proven that you don't have to kill humans to survive" she said.

I looked at her pleading eyes. _Don't say yes, don't say yes._

"Ok I'll try it" I said. _You idiot! What did you say that for!_

Kelly beamed her smile and threw her arms open for me. I walked over and kissed her. Hopefully once she's a vampire she'll be so desperate for human blood we can take junior and leave here for a normal life.

"Ok Cullens teach me your ways" I said. _Your disgusting, weird, abnormal ways!_

I saw Edward in the corner of my eye trying not to laugh at my thoughts and so a hunting party was put together leaving Esme, Renesmee and Jacob to stay with Kelly.

Drinking animal blood was more vile than I ever imagined it would be. How any vampire could be trained to live like this was a mystery. As I walked back to the house Kelly was standing at the door smiling.

"How was it?" she said.

I just grunted in response. As I approached her, her smile suddenly dropped and her eyes stared into mine as her face changed to a look of agony.

"What's wrong?" I said grabbing her.

The rest of the Cullens helped lower her to the floor as her legs began to buckle underneath her. Kelly began thrashing about, her cries incoherent.

"What's going on Carlisle is it the baby?" I said desperately.

Before he could speak Kelly found her voice.

"I'M BURNING!" she screamed.


End file.
